



I 

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PRKSKN'TU:!) BY 



SPEECHES 



AND LETTERS 



IN SUPPORT OF THE CANDIDACY 

OF 



JOSEPH H. CHOATE 



FOR 



UNITED STATES SENATOR. 



BEING I'ARi' OF THE t'KUCEFUINGS 
A!' THK 



MASS MEETING OF REPUBLICAN 

VOTERS 

M Carnegie Music Hall, New York City, on the 
Evening ^i Wednksdav, T'F.rF.ATRF.R 23, 1896, 

UNDER the AUSmC.'IS Ol* XHE 

CHOATE CLUB 

I 
OF IMIK (TIN- OF NEW YORK. 



'uOl£i 



.U IV.' 



I 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Address of Edmund Wetmore, Esq ] 

'' " William D. Guthrie, Esq 4 

" " Elilui Root, Esq 20 

Remarks of Gen. Wager Swayne 27 

Letter of Rev. Richard S. Storrs, D.D h5 

" Hon. Seth Low 36 

" " William Allen Butler, Esq 37 

" " Hon. Sherman S. Rogers , . . . 40 

" " Rev. R. S. MacArthur, D.D 40 

" " Matthew Hale, Esq 41 

Resolutions adopted by Meeting 42 



ADDRESS OF EDMUND WETMORE, Esq. 

Fellow Citizens : 

This meeting has been called to endorse as a candidate 
for the office of United States Senator, that life-long Re- 
publican, that eloquent advocate, that patriotic citizen 
and gifted man, Joseph H. Choate. 

We propose his name, because we believe him pre- 
eminently fitted, in ability and character, to uphold the 
principles of the Republican Party and worthily represent 
the State of New York in our national councils. 

It is a time when tliat party has a peculiar need for the 
services of its ablest and strongest men. After a moment- 
ous political crisis, it has once more been entrusted with 
the controlling power in the government of the nation. 
It receives that power not only from the hands of its cus- 
tomary supporters, but from those who, having been its 
longest and most earnest opponents, nevertheless when 
the safety of the country was at stake, put aside every 
consideration of party name or party antipathies, and 
worked and voted for the Republican candidates. 

Coming into power under these circumstances, it is 
under a double responsibility to fulfill its pledges, and deal 
with the vast interests committed to its charge, with the 
wisdom and fidelity the country has a right to expect. 
And it can do that only by a steadfast adherence to its 
own princioles. Our Democratic allies who so patriot- 
ically aided our triumph would despise us if we did other- 
wise. These principles will form the guide by which its 
representatives in Congress and the Senate will endeavor 
to mould the legislation that is to affect the country. 

To aid effectively in that work requires sound judg- 
ment, ability in debate, power to rightly comprehend the 
grave and difl[icult questions upon the wise solution of 
which the very safety of the republic may depend, and an 
integrity of purpose that inspires public confidence and 
secures the influence that public confidence can alone 



. 2 

bestow. We have the rare satisfaction of finding in Mr. 
Choate one who fulfills all these requirements, and there- 
fore we advocate his election. 

That distinguished Democrat, Mr. Hewitt, in an inter- 
view two days since, lamented the decline of statesmanship 
in the United States Senate ; we want to do what lies in 
our power to supply the deficiency so far as concerns the 
representatives of the great State of New York. 

I will not usurp the time of the eloquent speakers who 
are to follow me in expanding the theme of Mr. Choate's 
fitness for the office for which we propose him, but I do 
wish to add a word as to the healthful sign of improve- 
ment in our political life that is evidenced by the awakened 
interest that our citizens take in every efl:'ort to secure bet- 
ter government. Men may differ widel}^ as to the wisdom, 
and are often prone to doubt the sincerity of those who 
are active in that work and disagree as to the expediency 
or effectiveness of what they propose, but no man can 
deny that the final preservation of popular government 
requires that the great body of the citizens, each according 
to his convictions, abilities and opportunities, should take 
an active part in the performance of political duties. 
And my profound conviction is that the place where polit- 
ical duties most urgently call for performance is within 
party lines. Government by party is not perfect, but it is 
the only method of government which, up to this time, 
has been developed, or is possible in our republic, and it 
is the one with which we have to deal and under which 
our national progress has been made and our national in- 
stitutions preserved. And that party is strongest that, in 
the men it selects for its offices and the measures it carries 
through, reflects most truly the genuine public opinion 
that prevails among its members. 

If this truth had been perceived by our political oppo- 
nents; if the Democratic party had had leaders instead of 
managers, it would not have fallen into the bog of repudi- 
ation at Chicago and left those who represented its hon- 
esty and intelligence and patriotism no choice but to leave 
its ranks. 



When, therefore, a Republican Legislature is about to 
enter upon the important and solemn duty of choosing a 
Senator of the United States, I know no method more ap- 
propriate, no means more effective for indicating candi- 
dates whose choice would be welcome to the party and 
useful to the State, than the testimony of their fellow- 
townsmen in public meeting assembled to the esteem and 
confidence in which they are held. That is what we have 
assembled for to-night as regards our fellow-townsman, 
Mr. Clioate. And the esteem and confidence that we feel 
and express extend throughout the State. Mr. Choate 
stands for no faction. The character and the number of 
the Republicans of this State who desire his election are 
such and so great that, even if their opinion were over- 
ruled, it could not be despised. His candidacy will receive 
the consideration and carry the weight that his eminence 
and character deserve, and no one can be presented for the 
suffrages of the Legislature more worthy of the high office 
for which he is proposed. It is an advance towards better 
politics when men, such as he, become candidates. To 
support him is a badge of good citizenship; to elect him 
will be an honor to the State. 



ADDRESS OF WILLIAM D. GUTHRIE, Esq. 

Fellow Republicans : 

Your presence here from all quarters of the city on 
such a stormy night proclaims that the objects which 
we advocate have made a deep impression on your 
hearts and that the people have at last been aroused to 
a sense of impending danger. 

The men who have summoned this mass meeting of 
republican voters expect me, I assume, to state in detail 
the issues we are debating, and to invite an expression 
of public opinion. They surely conceive it to be impos- 
sible that any republican majority, mindful of the tradi- 
tions of our great party, can be deaf to the voice and the 
wishes of their constituents. They cannot believe that 
the members of our legislature will disregard the 
admonitions of duty, conscience and patriotism, or 
defiantly reject the instructions of the voters who 
elected them. Therefore, it is the purpose of this meet- 
ing to enlighten the representatives and agents of the 
people at Albany as to public opinion and to instruct 
them as to our choice. 

We are assembled to discuss in the open a great 
question of vital public interest ; to emphasize an issue 
of political liberty which is of immeasurable importance 
to the whole nation ; to secure the election of a worthy 
representative of this State In the national senate ; 
to save the republican party from taking a step which 
would inevitably lead to its defeat and ruin, and to 
redeem the State of New York, so far as we can, from 
the odium and disgrace of further boss rule. 

Intimidated by no threats, dispirited by no calcu- 
lated chances of success, seeking and expecting no aid 
or inspiration except that which is born of the convic- 
tion that we are in the right, we come here without 



malice and without factional purpose to submit our 
views of political rights and duties for the consideration 
of our fellow republicans. 

There never has been a time in the history of this 
nation when the federal senate stood in greater need 
of the highest order of ability, character and patriotism, 
when it was more necessary to have able and upright 
representation for local as well as for national interests, 
for the present as well as for the future, for ourselves 
as for posterity. 

The great State of New York, with its immense 
population, its vast wealth, its incalculable commercial 
interests, its seven millions of people, has no larger 
representation and no greater voice in the senate at 
Washington than the smallest State of only fifty 
thousand inhabitants. New York has more than one 
hundred times the population of Nevada, yet each 
State has two senators. The uneven development of 
the country has rendered such a distribution of political 
power grossly, absurdly unfair, but that feature of the 
Constitution cannot be changed by amendment without 
the consent of the States. It is, however, always 
within the power of the people of the more populous 
States to counterbalance, in some measure at least, 
this great disadvantage by sending as their represent- 
atives to the national senate the foremost and best 
equipped of their statesmen. 

We have among us, ever ready to perform any duty 
that patriotism dictates, an ideal candidate — one of the 
greatest of our public men, a most conspicuous and a 
unique figure in the eyes of the country, the leader of 
the American bar, the successor of Webster as the 
foremost constitutional lawyer of the day, an orator of 
the highest rank, a scholar and statesman of the broad- 
est culture, a sturdy American of that sturdy New 
England type, a staunch republican — a man of splendid 



6 

talents and unblemished honor, to whom jealousy or 
hatred can deny no title to glory. If the people wish 
to send such a delegate to the national senate, they can 
do so in the person of the Honorable Joseph H. Choate, 
the true friend, the chivalrous advocate, the lion-hearted 
patriot, a man whom no fear can deter and no miserable 
calculations of expediency or failure hinder from the 
performance of duty. When asked to make this fight 
against bossism, he was begged by many friends not to 
enter the lists, because it seemed a forlorn hope. The 
substance of his answer was as Samuel Adams would 
have answered, if I may apply Webster's ringing words, 
" My judgment approves this movement, my whole 
heart is in it, my patriotic feelings impel me ; all that 
I have and all that I am and all that I hope in this 
life I am ready here to stake upon it. If I were so 
cowardly as to falter now when asked to stand up and 
make this fight, simply because I am not guaranteed 
success or freedom from inevitable political abuse, may 
my tongue cleave to the roof of rriy mouth!" A dis- 
tinguished lawyer advised him to decline to be a can- 
didate, because the result was doubtful, and failure 
would dim his prestige and his reputation. I can 
well imagine Choate turning on him, his face glow- 
ing with indignation, and saying : " If I knew now 
that not one man in the republican caucus would 
dare to vote for me, I should run and continue to 
run, because I believe it to be my duty to protest 
against the present political conditions in this State 
— a condition that shocks every national instinct 
in me and makes my blood boil with indignant re- 
volt." You all know Choate, whose words have thus 
thrilled you. You have seen that grand and stately 
figure, a born leader of men, " for dignity composed and 
high exploit." If Joseph H. Choate, after his great 
career at the bar, and in spite of the affliction that has 



so lately darkened his home, is ready to step forward 
and lead us, shall we pause and hesitate to follow ? 

From every corner of the State, from every fireside 
of those plain people who make up the strength and 
stability of the republican party, from every State in 
the Union, the mere suggestion of the possibility of 
Mr. Choate's candidacy has brought forth expressions 
of patriotic hope and longing. Everywhere he is pro- 
claimed to be an ideal candidate and the people's choice. 
On all sides, even by his enemies, his brilliant talents 
are conceded, his peculiar and great capacity for the 
office undisputed, his high character admired, the vital 
necessity for just such a statesman admitted. Why 
can we not have him as our senator ? Because, as we 
are told, even if the republican voters clamored for his 
election, it is now too late; because the legislature is 
said to be owned by a man who has not yet dared to 
come out publicly as an avowed candidate ; because 
they say the legislature of the State of New York is 
pledged — enslaved — and cannot break its chains. I 
deny it. It must be false. It is false. The republican 
legislature shall refute that slander by voting for the 
candidate of the people. 

It is objected that the party cannot send Mr. Choate 
to the United States Senate because he is not in favor 
of protection ; but they all know he has been an out- 
and-out protectionist for forty years, and has always 
been with his party on that question, on the currency, 
on every fundamental principle. I shall read you a 
resolution offered by Mr. Choate at a meeting of the 
Union League Club in December, 1888, shortly after 
Harrison's election, and leave you to judge whether 

Choate is a protectionist : 

''Resolved^ that the decisive verdict of the American 
people in favor of maintaining the system of protection of 
our domestic industries, under which we have enjoyed such 
uniform and marvellous prosperity, has perpetuated that 



8 

system as our cardinal national policy. That returning to 
power on this issue on which the canvass has been fought 
and won, the republicans are bound to adapt the legisla- 
tion of Congress to carry out the declared wishes of the 
people, and to fulfill their pledges given in successive 
national conventions, to reduce taxation to the measure of 
the public needs, and to reform and revise the existing 
tariff, to prune away its extravagances, and to readjust its 
burdens, with a careful regard to the preservation and 
protection of our manufactures, which have been fostered 
and maintained by its aid." 

The next objection is that Mr. Choate criticised the 
McKinley Bill, He did. When that measure was being- 
discussed, Mr. Choate insisted that some of its items 
were too high ; that the increases in many instances 
were too great and ought at least to have been gradual; 
that in any event the act should not go into effect for 
at least six months, and that any tariff act that made 
radical alterations should take effect only after a reason- 
able period, so that the trades affected might be able 
to prepare and adjust their business accordingly. Such 
was the view at the time of other leading republicans, 
includinof Mr. Blaine. Mr. Choate then uro-ed that too 
sudden and radical a change would surely lead to defeat 
at the approaching congressional elections, and that 
such a policy might cost us the control of the govern- 
ment in 1892. In a word, he agreed with Mr. Blaine. 
You all recall the disaster of 1890 and the loss of the 
presidency in 1892. What think you of the states- 
manship of the man who had the wisdom, the fore- 
sight and the courage to say to his party that they 
were making a mistake ? It was an example of the far- 
sighted broad views of public affairs which we need in 
the senate to-day. He was sound then, as we know he 
is sound to-day. And there is one man in the United 
States who above all others will acknowledofe that if 
the advice of Choate and Blaine had been followed in 
1890, the great defeat of that year and of 1892, and the 
subsequent birth of Bryanism might have been averted. 



9 

We learn by experience, and the lesson in this instance 
was an awful one to the country. Can any man doubt 
that Mr. McKinley would say that Mr. Choate was 
then riofht ? 

Another objection urged is that Mr. Choate has 
held aloof from practical politics, and is not, there- 
fore, a good judge of men and things. As a trafficker 
in office, a distributer of spoils, a solicitor of patronage 
at the public crib, he is lacking and will be found want- 
ing. But in true statesmanship, in familiarity with our 
history, in power to perceive the currents of national 
feeling, in ability to devise wise, effective and beneficial 
legislation, no man living surpasses him. Those who 
have heard his great forensic arguments before the 
Supreme Court at Washington, in cases of constitu- 
tional law, know him to be one of the best informed 
public men of the day. His discernment of popular 
tendencies is equal to Blaine's power. It was he who, 
weeks before any one in the East championed the cause, 
stepped forward in McKinley's support. Long in ad- 
vance of the development of McKinley's strength, Mr. 
Choate came out for him, boldly declaring that the 
people demanded and insisted upon the nomination of 
McKinley. Here is an article printed in the Sun of 
March 20th (previously published in the Commercial 
Advertiser), three months before the St. Louis Con- 
vention met : 

" I think McKinley is the coming man," said Mr. Choate. 
" His selection seems almost a foregone conclusion. Why, 
his boom is sweeping across the country with irresistible 
force. He stands for Americanism, pure and simple." 

" What do you mean by Americanism?" 

" Protection and the independence of America. The 
wave of patriotic feeling growing out of the Venezuelan and 
Cuban controversies which has swept across the country 
will naturally cluster around McKinley's boom. McKinley 
stands first and foremost for protection to the masses and 
classes, and this alone ought to insure his nomination." 

" Then you do not believe Governor Morton will win at 
St. Louis?" 



10 

" No, I don't think that Mr. Piatt is honestly supporting- 
him. He is using the Governor's name merely to get votes 
to trade at St. Louis." 

" Whom, then, is Mr. Piatt really committed to?" 
" No one in particular. He will trade his votes vv^here 
he can get the most credit for them." 

Has not every word of that declaration proved true? 

The only remaining ground of attack upon Mr. 
Choate is beneath contempt. It appeared in an edi- 
torial of the Sim, and it was repeated on Monday 
morning in a letter written for the public press by a 
member of the legislature, a lawyer acquainted with 
the facts, a man who ought to have known better. 
This editorial and this letter taunted Mr. Choate with 
not taking any active part in the last campaign and 
criticised him for remaining silent. He was silent. But 
it was the silence of the darkened home and the sad- 
dened life of a bereaved father. All through that sum- 
mer Choate stood at the bedside of a dying daughter. 
I shrink from intruding into the privacies of any man's 
home life, but in the face of this wanton, cruel and 
cowardly attack, it becomes necessary to lift the veil 
that hides a strong man's grief from the public gaze. 
At the height of that campaign, death came to the 
home of Joseph H. Choate and deprived him of a 
dearly loved daughter. His friends appreciated the 
greatness of his grief when they saw him bowed with 
sorrow and refusing to be comforted because his daughter 
was not. Such a desolation should have had enough 
sacredness and pathos in it to have shielded him from 
this low and brutal calumny. Let us hear no more of 
that objection. 

Yet is there any man who will assert that even then 
Choate ignored the demands of patriotism and party ? 
Did he not contribute to the full extent of his means 
to the republican national campaign fund ? Did not 
Mr. Hanna know the cause of Choate's silence and re- 
spect and sympathize with it ? Did he not know that 



11 

if it became necessary he could still call and that 
Choate would respond, however grief-stricken. 

.Now, men, we are told that this movement is doomed 
to defeat, because there is in this State a man so pow- 
erful, a boss or leader so absolute, that if he decreed 
he could send to the United States Senate a vagrant 
from the streets. Mr. Choate is not acceptable to this 
man. This boss does not approve of Mr. Choate. This 
leader consults no man. He tolerates no discussion 
or debate, but in a darkened rear office in the lower 
part of Broadway, at his own caprice, controlled by no 
principle, responsible to no one, and following no rule, 
except perchance it be the famous rule of addition, 
■division and silence, he covertly operates and manipu- 
lates the political machine. 

I shall read you a text from the New York Press, 
whose republicanism no one will question, and whose 
editor surely is just as true a protectionist and as mind- 
ful of the best interests of the republican party as any 
of Mr. Choate's critics. Here is what the editor of the 
Press says : 

" The Legislature will do what Mr. Piatt directs it to do, 
because it belongs to him. He can do anything he pleases 
' with it. He can elect himself senator. If he chooses he 
can name the notorious Lou Payn. Should it so suit his 
fancy, he could send from New York to the United States 
Senate an outcast from the party or a vagrant from the 
streets. And this because the Legislature is his, because 
he owns it. " 

We answer that we cannot believe the republican 
party has sunk as low as the Press estimates. If true, 
it is high time to revolt and free ourselves of such boss 
rule. We hope that no man owns the republican legis- 
lature. We still trust that on the 19th of January, as 
directed by the federal laws and in pursuance of that 
State Constitution which was moulded under Choate's 
•direction as President of the Constitutional Conven- 
tion, the republican majority will obey the will of 



12 

the people by selecting Choate as our United States 
Senator. 

The candidacy of Mr. Choate is said to be an attempt 
to rob Mr. Piatt of deserved credit and reward, or, as 
a writer put it, of the crown of statesmanship. Our 
purpose is not to despoil, but to expose ; not to un- 
crown, but to unmask. 

Let. us, however, look under the crown and be- 
neath the mask, and see what we find. Can there be 
any question that the candidacy of Mr. Morton was 
hopeless from the beginning, and that it was put 
forward merely as a basis for dickering and nego- 
tiations ? Was not Choate right in what he said 
last March? Can any one doubt that if Mr. McKinley 
and Mr. Hanna had been prepared to make pledges 
and pay for peace, they could have bought and se- 
cured Mr. Piatt's enthusiastic support ? Do we not^ 
all know that McKinley refused to make any bargain 
for patronage and that he spurned the suggestion ? 
Let me recall a sample of Mr. Piatt's statesmanship. 
I read from an interview with Mr. Piatt published in 
the Sun of May iith, one month before the nomina- 
tion at St. Louis : 

"My opposition to Gov. McKinley proceeds almost 
entirely from my belief that he will get the republican 
party into turmoil and trouble. He is not a well-balanced 
man of affairs. He is not a great man. He is not a trained 
and educated public man. He is not an astute political 
leader. He is simply a clever gentleman, much too amiable 
and much too impressionable to be safely intrusted with 
great executive office, whose quest for honor happens to 
have the accidental advantage of the association of his 
name with the last republican protective tariff." 

Yet this man is now put forward as the friend, the 
admirer, the loyal supporter, if not the discoverer of 
Mr. McKinley as a presidential candidate. 

Again, it is urged that we should elect Mr. Piatt as a 
reward for his heroic services during the last campaign. 
We know of no services except collecting contributions 



13 

from corporations and efforts to secure the nomination 
of such members of the legislature as would be accept- 
able to him. In all that, he is suspected of having 
been singularly successful. There only remains the 
claim as to the gold clause in the St. Louis platform, 
for which Piatt, notwithstanding all his loud pretenses, 
deserves absolutely no credit. The claim is pure fiction 
— without any foundation whatever. I shall read what 
Mr. Hanna said upon this point on June 23d, two days 
after the convention adjourned: 

"The money plank adopted by the convention was in 
St. Louis long before ex-Senator Piatt, Senator Lodge 
and Mr. Lauterbach arrived. I wish to state most em- 
phatically that the plank defining the party's finani ial 
position was advocated by western men, drawn up by 
western men, and approved in the exact shape in which it 
was finally adopted, before any man from the East reached 
St. Louis. The plank, as it was finally approved, went to 
the convention without any eastern recommendation or 
suggestion. Finally, I may state with equal emphasis that 
the plank shown me as representing the eastern sentiment 
was not adopted by the convention, nor was it anything like 
the declaration made officially for the republican party, 
being only two or three sections long." 

General Horace Porter, President of the Union 

League Club, said at the same time : 

" On Friday, the 12th of June, five days before the adoption 
of the platform, I was shown the draft of the solid gold- 
standard financial plank prepared by Gov. McKinley 
and his friends. With two insignificant changes of words, 
and those not affecting the 'gold' clause, that platform 
was adopted by the convention by a majority of eight to 
one. No one can rob William McKinley and his immediate 
advisers of the credit of framing and securing the adoption 
of our thoroughly admirable financial plank." 

And Timothy L. Woodruff, our next Lieutenant 

Governor, also said : 

" I do not believe that Piatt had any influence in the 
making of the gold plank, but the vote for the gold plank 
would have been just as strong if Mr. Piatt had not declared 
himself in favor of it." 

So much for the pretense that Mr. Piatt deserves the 
credit for the gold plank in the St. Louis platform. 



14 

It is threatened that those who take part in this 
movement to elect Mr. Choate will be condemned by, 
Mr. McKinley, and that he intends to hand over all 
the federal patronage to the man who vilified him 
seven months ago. What a contemptible estimate of 
our next President ! We know that estimate to be 
refuted by McKinley's character and his whole career. 
There he is, waiting to take the presidential oath with 
the confidence and blessings of the people. He needs 
no eulogy from us. Shall we send to the Senate the 
man who abused him ? Shall we appoint to represent 
this State a man who has never risen above the traffic 
in spoils, a man who will organize in Washington a 
clearing-house for political tribute, a man who can block, 
thwart, hold up the new administration at every step, 
demand terms upon every appointment, exact contribu- 
tions from every corporation in the United States 
under the threat and coercion of adverse federal lecjisla- 
tion ? Would not the presence of such a senator from 
New York be a blight upon the administration, a dark 
cloud ever threatening storm and ruin, when God 
knows we need a clear sky ? On the other hand, how 
auspiciously the new term would begin if you sent 
Choate to help McKinley? What could you do that 
would more certainly strengthen the new President and 
assure success and prosperity for his administration than 
to send to Washington a man of great talents and 
unblemished honor, his friend — the foremost citizen of 
this State ? 

1 shall now ask you to follow me in an examination 
of two aspects of the political condition within our 
own party as I believe the situation to exist. Accord- 
irTg to my lights, this is the vital point and the merit of 
this whole movement. We have a duty higher than the 
mere lauding of our choice, as the principles of eternal 
right and patriotism must ever rise above all other con- 
siderations. 



15 

The one aspect leads us to inquire whether as Amer 
leans we can safely submit to the bossism of any man, 
however pure his motives, however assured of his 
integrity, however lofty his character ? The other as- 
pect requires me to go further and ask you how we 
come to have such a boss and how he has attained and 
maintained his political power? Then I shall go still 
further and higher and impeach that boss as unworthy 
of beinof sent to the United States Senate. 

In the first place, let us assume that Mr. Piatt's 
methods are entirely legitimate and that his record 
and talents qualify him to be the leader of the repub- 
lican party in the Empire State. Is it not element- 
ary in politics, is it not absolutely certain that the 
ascendahcy of any one man, however pure his 
motives or high his principles, endangers and threatens 
the rights of the people? Is it not intolerable that 
a man elected to no office, with neither evidence 
nor warrant of trust and confidence on the part of 
the people, without responsibility to them, shall be 
permitted to exercise such power and dictate who 
shall go to the senate? Is not power concentrated in 
an irresponsible individual always a menace to public 
liberties ? Such a boss, it is perhaps true, may not en- 
rich himself from the spoils of office and the flood of 
contributions passing through his fingers ; but have we 
nothing to fear, to apprehend, to dread, from his 
system, from his practices, from his lust of power? 
Conceding all that may be said in support of his claim 
of personal integrity, does not Mr. Piatt exercise a 
power in the administration of the affairs of this State 
monstrous and tyrannical in the extreme ? Does he 
not exercise a power and exert an influence to which 
the American people will never submit ? 

Therefore, if Mr. Piatt's character were as high and 
as unblemished as Mr. Choate's, it would nevertheless be 



16 

our duty to rebel as republicans in order to save the 
party itself from the odium and reproach of such methods. 

But, there is the other aspect of the case, which is 
far more serious and odious. We must have courage 
enough to look the facts in the face, and to ask our- 
selves some plain questions. Let us come, without 
flinching-, as soon as possible to close fighting and grap- 
ple on the real ground of battle. What does Plattism 
really mean ? Whence his power ? Why is he said to 
own the legislature ? Why is it felt and believed all 
over the State that his will is supreme and his control 
omnipotent ? Why is it boasted that he can send him- 
self to the United States Senate or any puppet or 
figurehead he pleases? How is it possible among a 
free, spirited and self-respecting people, living under a 
republican form of government, that one man, who 
holds no political office, who represents no political 
principles or doctrines except spoils, who is not respon- 
sible to the people, can wield such a power, unlimited, 
unrestrained, unchecked, accountable to no one ? 

Since the days of Tweed, a new system of political 
corruption has come into existence. The individual 
legislator is now seldom directly bribed. Corporations 
or individuals seeking protection or valuable charter 
rights at the hands of a legislature, retain directly 
or indirectly a recognized political boss and pay him 
for the service to be rendered. This secures the 
desired protection or favor. It is pretended that 
these payments are contributions to the party, but 
as a matter of fact they are tributes to the fund of 
the boss, who turns over to the National, State or 
County Committees as much of the spoil as he sees fit, 
distributing most of it for the purpose of electing to 
the legislature his own nominees. In form, it is a 
contribution to the party ; in substance and truth it is 
bribery or blackmail. Most of these contributions are 



17 

said to be made by corporations. The items are sup- 
posed to be entered on their books under fictitious sundry 
accounts and hidden from public investigation. In the 
old days, all contributions to the party were made to 
the treasurer of the National Committee or the treas- 
urer of the State Committee or the treasurer of the 
County Committee. There was some accountability. 
Now they are made to the boss, and there is no account- 
ability, for secrecy is almost always a condition accom- 
panying the so-called contribution. In this way, the New 
York bosses of both parties are said to collect annually 
hundreds of thousands of dollars. Mr. Piatt is the re- 
publican boss, and levies tribute in our party's name. 
No one ventures to deny the existence of this practice. 
His champions and defenders concede that this money 
passes through his hands, but they tell us that we re- 
publicans should not object because it is expended 
solely for the benefit of the republican party. It would, 
indeed, be interesting to ascertain what proportion of 
this year's contributions went to the Republican Na- 
tional Committee for legitimate purposes, and what pro- 
portion was reserved to assist in electing the present 
legislature. We are told, however, that we ought not to 
complain or even to mention this disgraceful fact until 
we can prove that some part of the money handled by 
Mr. Piatt is devoted to his own enrichhient or the en- 
richment of his henchmen and followers. Does that 
answer the charge or lessen the guilt ? The same plea 
was advanced on behalf of Mr. Croker. But who 
knows the truth of the matter } To whom is a state- 
ment furnished ? To whom is there any responsibility? 
Who audits the accounts ? The professional politicians 
and bosses of both parties all over the country somehow 
amass great wealth. Suppose the boss were not so 
conscientious as we are to understand Mr. Piatt is, and, 
becoming contaminated by handling this fund, were in- 



18 

clined to enrich himself? It was asserted, and perhaps 
with equal truth, that Mr. Croker used the funds he col- 
lected exclusively for the benefit of Tammany Hall. 

The principal contributors to this fund are known to 
be the corporations. Payments are not made by them 
from any feeling of devotion to the party or its prin- 
ciples. The officers who thus use corporate funds are 
clearly responsible for their acts. This is a misuse of 
trust funds; and those who receive are equally guilty — 
nay, more guilty, for they know that the payments are 
made in most instances to avoid attack upon corporate 
property. The time is coming when a fearless investi- 
gating committee or district attorney will uncover this 
whole system, lay it bare, expose it, and put an end 
forever to the political contributions of corporations to 
the funds of any boss. "Truth will come to sight" ; 
such practices " cannot be hid " much longer. No cor- 
poration has the right to give a dollar for such a pur- 
pose, and to do so should be made a criminal offense. 

Mr. Piatt's great power comes from the handling of 
this fund, from the levying of tribute directly and in- 
directly, and we republicans are determined to stop 
that source of supply and the practice and to destroy 
that power for the sake of the party itself. We are 
not willing to wait until an aroused people vents its 
wrath upon the* republican party to punish it for the 
acts or the crimes of any boss. Our party is as it ever 
has been the party of the people, the defender of the 
Constitution and of the rights of property, and any such 
political methods as we condemn imperil its usefulness 
and its future. 

Tweed in his day was defiant of public opinion. 
" What are you going to do about it ? " he said. But 
Tilden and O'Conor showed him. Piatt likewise is de- 
fiant, but the people will find the way to pull him down 
and destroy his power. When Piatt was fighting 



19 

against McKinley, he issued a statement, published in 
the SiLu, of May 14, in which he said : 

" I submit to the business men of this country, whose 
sentiment can always control a nominating convention, 
that they would better do some thinking between now and 
the i6th of June on other subjects than this silly twaddle of 
newspapers about ' bosses ' and ' boss rule.' " 

May we not in our turn ask the self-respecting people 
of this State and their agents at Albany if they had 
not better do some thinking between now and the 19th 
of January? Will the people consider this objection to 
bosses and boss rule as silly twaddle ? 

Our liberty is as much endangered by this system of 
boss rule and corruption as our honor and our national 
character. It is sapping away the old virile political 
spirit of Americans and the integrity of our public life. 
It is undermining the foundations of the republic itself. 
Unless stopped, the people will lose all confidence in 
our institutions and sweep them away. The existence 
of the republican party is endangered by such a cor- 
rupt and debasing system of bossism. This night will 
be memorable if it only shows that the party still has 
within its own ranks enough courage and spirit to fight 
for its redemption from boss rule. 

Therefore, at the bar of public opinion, I impeach 
Thomas Collier Piatt as unworthy to be sent to the 
Senate of the United States. I impeach him in the 
name of the republican party whose trust he has be- 
trayed, whose prestige he has tarnished, whose honor 
he has sullied. I impeach him as being responsible for 
a political system conducted in utter defiance of all 
morality. I impeach him for poisoning political life at 
the primaries, for debauching the noble science of gov- 
ernment, for corrupting and prostituting those who 
should esteem public office as a public trust. I impeach 
him in the name of the people of the United States, in 
the name of both sexes, in the name of every age, in the 
name of every religion, as the common enemy of all. 



20 



ADDRESS OF ELIHU ROOT, Esq. 

Fellow Republicans : 

Mr. Joseph H. Choate is a candidate for election to 
the Senate of the United States. In the manly and 
direct fashion which characterizes him, he has placed 
himself in nomination before the Legislature and the 
people of the State as a candidate for that high office. 
I have been asked to come here and say in this public 
meeting of republican citzens of New York what I 
think and what I feel regarding his candidacy. I do 
it cheerfully, because this is the good old-fashioned New 
York way in which the people exyjress their sentiments 
and their opinions in order that they may be known 
by their representatives in the Legislature, in Congress 
and in the various branches of Government. I do it not 
under any supposition that we have the election of the 
Senator in Congress, that you or I can say who shall be 
the representative of New York in the Senate, but because we 
are the constituents of some of the members of the Senate 
and Assembly, because many other constituents and other 
members of these houses will hear what is said to-night, 
will read what is said to-night, will find courage to express 
their views, will be incited, it may be, to range themselves 
with us in our expression of opinion ; and far distant may 
be the day when the people of the State of New York 
yield their assent to the proposition that under any cir- 
cumstances whatever it is an impertinence for any citizen 
of the State, however humble he may be, however few 
they may be who agree with him, to express to his repre- 
sentatives in the Legislature of this State his sentiments 
and his wishes regarding their action. (Applause.) 

No legislature, no governor, no congress and no presi- 
dent is the superior of the people of the United States. 
(Applause.) They go to their high places to register and 
execute the will of their constituents, and the way in 
which that will is made known is by the free, voluntary 
and spontaneous expression of individual opinion, however 
humble each individual may be. (Applause.) 



21 

4 

For such an expression of opinion we are met to-night. 
I have come here to wage no war, to attack no one, but to 
say what is in my mind as furnishing a reason why, in my 
judgment, the members of the legishiture of the State of 
New York would do wisely to vote for Mr. Choate as 
Senator in Congress to represent the State. (Applause.) 

He is a candidate, and I suppose we are all for him. 
Certainly we would not have come through the storm of 
this inclement night if we had not been for him. I am 
sure that I am for him for reasons. 

The first reason is to be found in the necessary answer 
to the question : What member of the legislature can be 
found who, if he had great interests at stake himself, if 
his life, his liberty, his property, the deepest and dearest 
interests of those for whom he cares were at stake, would 
aoept the service of any other man in this State if he 
could get the advocacy and sux)port of Joseph H. Choate? 
(Applause.) 

I do not say that he is the only man in this State of 
New York fit to be Senator in Congress. There are 
many others who would well and worthily fill that 
position. There is no other avowed candidate for the 
place. (Applause.) There doubtless will be, but no man 
can tell who they will be. It is probable that there 
will be candidates emerging in the future who are not fit 
for the position ; it is highly probable that there will be 
others wlio are lit for the position, but I do undertake 
to say from what we have seen of this gentleman as he 
has gone in and out among us for more than a generation, 
as we have watched the splendid achievements of his 
brilliant talents, as we have known the sterling qualities 
of his estimable character that there cannot be found in 
the length and breadth of this State or of any other state 
between the Atlantic and the Pacific a man more Avorthy 
to be Senator in Congress than Mr. Choate. (Applause.) 

I am for him not only because he is my dear friend of 
many years, but because I have a pride in the Republican 
party and I wish it to be well and gloriously repre- 
sented ; because I have a pride in my state in which I was 



22 

born and have lived all my life, and I wish it to be well 
and gloriously represented ; because I have the interest of 
my country at heart, and I wish it to have the services of 
its best and noblest citizens in these coming years which 
I feel are to be years of trial. 

I believe he is the best man for the place. He is wise. 
Can proof be required of it better than the stream of the 
wise, the most successful, the most sagacious, the most 
acute of the citizens of this great city who seek the doors 
of his office day by day to ask his advice upon the most 
intricate, difficult and important questions. He is able. 
Can better proof be required than the stream of applicants 
for his service, who come from every city and from every 
State, wherever the greatest and most important questions 
are to be determined by our highest courts. His mind is 
stored with learning, the wisdom of past generations, of 
great minds who have thought upon questions of govern- 
ment, of politics, of economy. His mind is trained by 
literature, by familiarity with the great writers, the great 
orators, the great philosophers of past ages, and this 
has given to him that wonderful style with which we are 
so familiar as clear, as direct, as simple, as effective, as 
ever proceeded from the mouth of any man within the 
hearing of any one within this hall. (Applause.) 

He is not only wise and learned from books ; he knows 
the book of life. He knows human character, and, with 
a rare insight, plays upon it in the interests of the causes 
which he represents as skillfully as the born genius in 
music touches the strings of his instrument. Before a 
court, before a jury, before any assemblage whatever, this 
wise and sagacious man, with his keen insight into the 
human heart and character, touches in all ways the true 
chords that he wishes to respond. 

He has eloquence. He has the keen, incisive wit 
that clears the way in the dullest understanding, for the 
bitterly cold and certain logic that proceeds always direct 
from certain premises to irrefutable conclusion. He has 
the wonderful power to adorn the cold hard processes of 
reasoning with the gentle and graceful play of humor. 



23 

All the qualities which go to make up the statesman, the 
legislator, the orator, the mover and the wielder of men, 
whether it be in the forum or upon the rostrum ; whether 
it be before courts, before public assemblages, or in the 
halls of legislation, this townsman of ours combines in 
his own person. And he has a high and serene courage 
which fails under no circumstances, and in no emergency. 
He does not carry his heart upon his sleeve for daws to 
peck at, but those who know him know that no man ever 
surpassed him in the quality of faithful friendship. When 
his time comes — far distant may it be — to render his ac- 
count, he can say, like the young Cameronian hero of 
romance: "God, so do to me, and more also if ever I 
gave my back to a foe or my shoulder to a friend all the 
days of my life." (Applause.) 

I repeat the question, what member of the Legislature 
of this State would accept inferior service if in an hour of 
great emergency his dearest interests were involved, and 
he could secure the aid of this great advocate? 

There are some things in which one dispenses business 
and opportunity as a matter of favor. There are some bits 
of business which are given to nephews and the sons 
of friends and personal and social acquaintances, because 
one man can do them as well as another, and it is a very 
good thing to help along a friend pecuniarily or in 
his profession ; but when a man's life is at stake, when his 
liberty is at stake, when his property is at stake, how 
quickly all that vanishes. How quickly he seeks the man 
who can save him, and accepts no inferior service. 

Now, what is the cause that the State of New York has? 
What service does the State of New York require from 
its Senator in Congress? Is it a holiday procession, this 
Senate of the United States, in these years now to come, 
to which one shall send some favored associate to be dis- 
played in the trappings and to bear the honors of office? Is 
this a piece of business which is to be given as a favor to 
some one who will profit by it? Is it something which is to 
be used to please a friend ? Or is it something serious and 
earnest? Why, how can one ask the question? The flags 



24 

are hardly yet withdrawn from onr streets under which 
marched the procession of the peox)le of New York of all 
parties, of all creeds, of all shades of previous opinion, 
united with one great effort, to face and meet manfully a 
common danger. The sounds of the voice of patriotism 
have hardly died aw^ay since the great conflict of No- 
vember was brought to a conclusion. Thousands of 
our fellow citizens, belonging to the party which we 
insist is inferior to ours in patriotism, in willingness 
to sacrilice itself in the love of country, turned their 
backs upon their party in that contest, sacrificed 
such hopes of political preferment as they may have 
had, and made common cause with their political 
adversaries for the common good of our beloved coun- 
try. (Applause.) We have heard a hundred times 
within the last few months the indisputable truth 
that the crisis which we have just faced was the most 
serious crisis which America has ever had to meet since 
the constitution of the United States was first established — 
more serious than the terrible stress of civil war in 1861. 
We believed it, did we not? It is true, is it not, that the 
people of America were obliged to face the assaults of an 
enemy more deadly than foreign or than civil war could 
produce? Assaults upon national honor; assaults upon 
the sacred right of contract; assaults upon the independ- 
ence of our judiciary; assaults upon the power of the 
Union to enforce its own laws; assaults upon the very 
basis of our social condition; assaults by men who sought 
to tear down the government of the United States in order 
to set up another and a different government in its place ! 
Patriotism has but lately ruled in all the hearts of good 
and honest Americans. A great victory has been won. 
But, is the war over? Ah! no. We know it is not. The 
prosperity for which we looked so hopefully has not yet 
come, and it has not come because but one battle has been 
gained, and the war is still on and still to be fought out ; be- 
cause the hosts that were assaulting the citadel of national 
life and honor are gathering again for the assault, and the 



25 

first battle-field where they are to be met is the Senate 
of the United States. (Applause.) 

From that high vantage ground this year and next year, 
and every year until the election of 1900, will go forth loud- 
sounding notes of heresy and error to the misguided millions 
who voted for Bryan on hist election day. In that body of 
power and influence the financial legislation which our 
country so sorely needs to be wise and prudent is pre- 
vented by Senators of the United States; in that body to- 
day trembles perhaps the dreadful balance between war 
and peace, with all the untold horrors that a wrong 
decision may bring. Is it an opj^ortunity to oblige a 
friend, to decorate a friend? Ah, no, — the duty of 
patriotism, the duty of self-interest, the duty of plain 
common sense, require that to that battlefield, to that 
point of stress and conflict, this great State, with one-tenth 
of the population of the Union, with far more than one- 
tenth of its wealth, with its enormous commercial and 
manufacturing and agricultural interests, with more at 
stake than any other part of the Union, — this great State 
should send the best, the ablest, the greatest of its war- 
riors to fight the battle of the Constitution, of the law, of 
national honor, of the independence of the judiciary, of 
oursocialsystem,of independent Americanism. (Applause.) 
Now is the opportunity for the people of New York to show 
that they care for our country, and are willing to render it 
aid in hours of trial ; now is the opportunity for the 
people of New York to show that they are really fit to 
govern themselves (Applause) by doing, through the 
best and the strongest that they can send, good work for 
the cause of the Union and of national honor. (Applause.) 
Ah, how would the wise and good men of the senate wel- 
come a coadjutor like Choate? How gladly would Aldrich 
and Allison, and Sherman, and Hoar, and Frye, and Hale, 
and all the other of the stalwart and staunch Republicans 
who have been fighting the battles of honesty and honor 
against the crowd of repudiators and agitators and an- 
archists, welcome the assistance of Choate! (Applause.) 
How soon maj'' the time come when before the great 



26 

questions which that body has to determine in the near 
future, questions affecting the very life of our Union, the 
honor of our country, the perpetuity of our institutions, 
the continuance of our social status, — how soon may the 
time come when every father, every good law-abiding citi- 
zen of this State will be ready to cry, " Oh, for one hour 
of that clarion voice to speak from that high vantage 
ground the great truths on which our Union, our honor 
and our country rest ! Oh, for one thrust of that keen 
and incisive wit to puncture the false pretense of error. 
(Great applause.) Oh, for one American like Choate in 
the Senate of the United States to do unto the heresies of 
dishonor, of national degradation, what Webster did for 
nullification, what Sumner did for human slavery." 

Our voice in this great contest is but the voice of one 
crying in the wilderness. Members of the Legislature are 
elected, they are about to take their places, they are about 
to declare their choice. But one thing we can do. We 
can say so loudly, so often, what we think it is the duty 
of the State of New York to do, that if our fellow-citizens 
agree with us they, too, will take up the cry ; they, too, 
will send the message to their representatives at Albany, 
and that body, which is always really responsive to pub- 
lic opinion, if made to believe in its existence and to 
realize what it is — that that body will rise to the true dig- 
nity of the opportunity, will realize the duty which is 
before it, and will do for the State of New York what the 
plain interests of our common country and the interests 
of their constituents demand — send to the Senate the best 
man for the performance of the great, important duties 
which are to be performed. 



27 
GENERAL WAGER SWAYNE'S REMARKS. 

Gentlemen : 

The little that I have to say to you is concerned with 
a very direct and specific pro^Dosition : it is that the pri- 
maries of the Republican party in the City of New York 
are just as dishonest as the supremacy of the Republican 
machine may require that they shall be (applause), and 
that this dishonest}^, rising through the body politic, 
concentres in corruption at its head (api:)lause) ; and that 
this meeting is called in aid of an attempt to end that 
state of things with which it is not possible that there 
shall be any compromise (applause) ; and this, as I have 
said, is a specific proi^osition, and it is not put forward 
as a general statement to which the credulous assent of 
any man is asked. 

A few months ago a pamphlet was put forward and 
freely offered to the perusal of the citizens of New York. 
I have a coitj in my hand ; other copies are easily within 
your reach. Precisely the statement that I have made in 
your hearing is made in this pamphlet, and it is supported 
by facts and figures, names and dates ; and it is signed by 
twenty -five Republicans of New York City, and among 
them Joseph H. Choate. (Api^lause.) 

Now, those gentlemen have made in this pamphlet a 
specific statement to the general effect that the Republican 
primaries in the City of New York are dishonest, and they 
give the numbers of men found in each district, the num- 
bers of names fraudulently upon the roll in each district ; 
they challenge investigation ; they submit all manner of 
reports; and they make this statement deliberately over 
their signatures, placing upon themselves the alternative 
either of dishonest or reckless accusation or else of being 
exponents of a carefully ascertained truth. They show 
apparently beyond disjiute, that members of the Repub- 
lican County Committee in sufficient numbers to fix the 
character and control the conduct of that Committee have 
obtained their membership by fraud. 

Now, it is not necessary to a movement that is based 



28 

upon that state of facts, designed for its eradication, that 
the moral character or the political behavior of any man 
be made the subject of vituperative statements. Be the 
man never so honest, if the responsibility for that state 
of facts rests on that man, his continuance in political 
authority is a damage, and a just one, to his party, and a 
danger to his country and to every good interest that his 
country has in charge. (Applause.) 

Hence, we have, if you please, in this a specific starting 
point. These statements, so made, as the result of most 
careful and laborious and honest investigation, were laid 
before the Governor of this State, the Honorable Levi P. 
Morton. He sent them back for investigation and report 
to the Republican County Committee. It that County Com- 
mittee had been composed of men in no degree implicated 
with these frauds, of high-minded and disinterested men, or 
if, being such as they are, they had replied with other facts 
and figures reasonably supporting a different judgment, 
certainly I would not be here at this time. Instead of 
that, this County Committee is shown by this book to 
have been largely composed of men who hdd place in 
the committee as the result of dishonesty at those very 
primary elections. 

Even then, if they had come back with a refutation, 
even an attempted specific refutation of these accusations 
of fraud, the matter would have stood upon a different 
basis from that upon which it stands at this time. Instead 
of that they pooh-poohed these statements, and from that 
day until now they have never spoken of them except in 
terrns of general denial or general indifference or con- 
tempt. 

Now, if a notoriously dishonest person charges a man 
of good reputation with dishonesty, and doesn't make his 
case good with specific facts, the man who is charged may 
treat the accusation with contemptuous silence. But is 
there a man in the City of New York who can afford to have 
a damaging statement made about him, with the facts spe- 
cifically presented and signed by twenty-five men such as 
these and treat it with contemptuous silence? Is there a 



29 

man iu the City of New York who, if such a statement were 
made about him specifically, by such men, or for that mat- 
ter, by one of them, and he failed to reply, you would 
not feel that he had deservedly lost your confidence and 
respect? That is a plain statement of the facts upon which 
this situation stands ; the details are open to you. 

What followed in this case? There was an appeal 
to the County Committee, as I have said. When the 
County Committee refused to take any notice of those 
charges and continued in its membership the men whose 
individual participation in those frauds and individual 
fruits of those frauds is here disclosed, then for a right- 
minded Republican there came an irrepressible conflict 
between the Republican party and that County Committee, 
and the State Machine, which, as you will presently see, 
has adopted all its frauds, and it continues to this day. 

Well, what next? An appeal to the State Committee, 
and the same species of treatment. What no man in this 
city of any character whatever could afford to disregard 
if put forth with like circumstance by one man of decent 
reputation, first a County Committee and then a State 
Committee treats as wholly unworthy of consideration or 
reply, although more than five thousand resident Republi- 
cans had, in appealing to the State Committee, joined in 
the request already made by the committee of twentj^-five 
that some action looking to the establishment of decency 
should be taken. 

What next? This careful, thorough and unquestioned 
exposure was denounced by the machine as an ignomini- 
ous failure; it had accomplished nothing. Let us see for 
a moment whether it did or not? A presidential election 
was impending; it was the next thing to be looked after, 
tiie first result of it to be secured, if possible, by whoever 
cared for honesty in the Republican party was that for the 
next four years if the Republican candidates should be 
elected the Republican machine that had espoused and 
ad()i)ted these frauds should not be able to strengthen it- 
self by unlimited drafts on federal patronage, saying to 
the newlv elected President of the United States: "Do 



30 

now as we ask, because we put you here." Therefore, 
there was a careful and intelligent study of the presiden- 
tial field to find who it might be who could be best sup- 
ported as a presidential candidate, with confidence that if 
he were elected he would not be controlled by the Republican 
machine in the State of New York as to matters in this City. 
And as careful a study as a lawyer gives to the evidence 
in an important case brought conviction to the minds of 
many men in New York that the best man for that pur- 
pose, the man who if he were elected President would 
stand most firmly against the corrupt influences of the 
machine, was William McKinley of Ohio (applause), and in 
that way the facts herein disclosed led to the calling of a 
meeting at Cooper Institute in this city to start a move- 
ment which should plainly signify to the Republican 
Convention at St. Louis, and to its candidate when elected 
that the machine was not in exclusive control of the 
Republican vote in the State of New York, and that if 
its candidates were elected by the vote of New York he 
would not owe that vote exclusively to the machine. It 
was not at that time a pleasant or a popular thing to do, 
but it seemed like a duty to honesty in Republican admin- 
istration in this city and in this state, and it was done, 
and the result has proved it was effective. How well the 
shot told could be seen by the answering volley of abuse 
of Major McKinley with which the Machine immediately 
replied in the newspapers it controls. 

What next? . There were subsequent primaries and 
they were naturally just as dishonest as those com- 
mented upon here and more so. Some man said : 
" We can do nothing; let us drop it." What does that 
mean? Suppose there were dishonesty in the State of 
Oregon in Republican councils and management and ad- 
ministration there, what would that mean to a Republican 
in New York? Would it not mean that in laboring for his 
country through the medium of his i)arty he makes him- 
self the companion of knaves? Would it not mean that 
the Rejjublicans of Oregon are compelling the Republi- 
cans in New York to be co-laborers in a tainted party? 



31 

Would it not mean neglecting the fire of fraud that needs 
only to be left to burn unchecked and it will speedily 
consume the entire body politic? The truth is: that 
a man cannot be a Republican and know these things, 
and not continue to do his level best against them. 
It was said, ' ' Get up a rival organization ; go to the 
primaries, and beat these people at their own game." 
There is a difficulty about that, and it is this: that 
any body of men organized for the pursuit of a given 
object and getting their living out of that pursuit can 
clean out any time another corresponding body of men 
pursuing the same object, but obliged to earn their living 
in the meantime. (Laughter and applause.) You can- 
not do that. The way to stop fraud at the primaries is to 
have a reserve force of public sentiment that is strong 
enough, when the fraud is pointed out, to expel from the 
convention the man who is there by fraud. When fraud 
becomes profitless men do not practice fraud. (Ax^plause.) 
It is easy to see that this particular variety of 
fraud corrupts all the body politic, for iDrimaries make 
delegates, delegates make conventions, conventions make 
candidates, candidates are the limitations of elections and 
elections are the seat of power. That is the whole story 
and it is very simple. Therefore, it comes back again to 
the point that we have dishonest primaries in the city of 
New York, and, so long as we have them, the Republi- 
can party in the city is of no value, but is, on the con- 
trary, an injury to Republicans throughout the country. 
(Applause.) There is nothing, there never was anything 
on the face of the earth, and I think there never will be 
anything, quite so wonderful as a great nation exercising its 
functions for the x^rotection of the weak, the relief of the 
afflicted, the diffusion of learning, the assistance of the 
poor, the promotion of industry and the maintenance of 
justice ; and yet all those things are struck at under our 
system of government when there is dishonesty at the root 
of a political party that sometimes controls and always 
largely influences the operations of the nation. That is 
what it means, gentlemen. In fighting it, against any 



32 

odds whatever, there is nothing of the crank ; it is in- 
tensely practical. Although the State Committee con- 
temptuously dismissed the i^rotest out of which this 
movement grew, it is well known that the State Machine 
did not dare to nominate for Governor the man it would 
have set up had there been no opposition in the field within 
the party. It is as yet by no means clear that they have 
not builded better than they knew for uprightness of ad- 
ministration in this State. That by itself, if it prove to 
be true, will richly repay whatever the protest cost. 

I have already suggested to you that this evidence of dis- 
honest primaries was enough to set on foot and supjDort a 
movement Avhich tended to reduce the influence and in a 
degree paralyze the action of the New York Republican 
machine at the Convention in St. Louis, and tended to 
bring about the nomination of the man who, in the best 
Judgment of those that organized that movement, was the 
best adapted of all the candidates and the most to be 
relied ujDon to resist the influence of the machine in this 
city and in this State. Within the past week a reputable 
gentleman in this city told me that before Major McKinley's 
nomination he happened to call upon him at his home in 
Canton and found him with a copy of this pamphlet in his 
hand. 

Now, gentlemen, what next? When the machine 
found — and the machine is nothing but the aggregate re- 
sult of dishonest primaries (if the primaries were honest 
the machine would be impossible) — when the machine 
found that the man whom it had derided in the news- 
papers, as has to-night been read in your hearing, was 
the chosen of the people for their President, what next? 
What next about the federal patronage ? The Senate of 
the United States has a great countervailing and counter- 
balancing influence upon the President of the United 
States. It was so designed and is so fixed in the Consti- 
tution of the United States. If any President of the 
United States is a man with whom terms can be made and 
bargains driven, a man in the Senate of the United States 
is in position to make those terms and drive those bar- 



33 

gains. Therefore it is that every one of you who has in 
the least degree an intelligent knowledge of XDublic affairs 
in the State of New York at this time knows that there 
are two elements in the Republican party contending just 
now as to who shall be sent to the Senate this winter 
to represent New York. It may very well be that as 
•great, wise, good and true a man as Mr. Choate cannot 
be sent to the Senate of the United States by the present 
legislature of New York. But the matter does not end 
there. This movement will in any case make a difference 
in the Senate of the United States. It is going to make 
a difference in the power and potency of the Republican 
machine in the City of New York and in the State of New 
York whether or not the man w^ho is sent to the Senate 
of the United States shall go there with the whole of 
the State of New York behind him — so far, at least, as 
the Republican party is concerned — or shall go there 
stamped with the brand of the machine upon his brow, 
and carrying such weight only as may belong to one who 
is known to have been sent there by the machine and for 
its purposes alone. (Applause.) 

That is what Mr. Choate meant when in response to the 
urgent solicitations of his friends he said he would stand 
as a candidate if he did not get one legislative vote. 
(Applause.) To whatever extent you support him, to 
whatever extent the people of this city support him, to 
whatever extent the members of the legislature may sup- 
port him, to precisely that extent whoever is elected as an 
anti-Choate man will go to the Senate of the United States, 
as has been said this evening, not discovered but ex^josed. 
It seems to me that is rational. We had among those 
who signed the paper calling attention to those frauds a 
great man, a wise man, a good man, a true man, a pure 
man. We said to him, " Let us try at least to send you 
to the Senate, and if we bring upon you only ridicule, still 
bear it, because the ridicule will come from evil sources 
and what you do will be serviceable to the right. ' ' We 
have not mistaken our rhan. It was his phrase, not ours, 



84 

when he said he would stand as a candidate if he did 
not get a vote. 

Gentlemen, whoever wants to accomplish a moral re- 
sult in this world must be x>repared for failure in the 
immediate result ; but it does not always follow from the 
fact that the preparation has been made that the fruition 
of failure will be achieved. What we entertained as a for- 
lorn hope at the beginning is no longer forlorn. Look at 
the names of the men, look at the organizations that are 
coming day by day to the front in the City of New York, 
look at the list of names in this afternoon's paper, all 
supporters of Joseph H. Choate. In Brooklyn — Dr. Storrs, 
Mayor Schieren, Benjamin D. Silliman, and a whole list 
of names like that? Don't they insure this result in the 
minds of the people of the State of New York, that a man 
who goes to the Senate of the United States against the 
protest of those men will go there, known widely as they 
are known, as the exponent of all those things in politics 
against which those men have protested ! You and I, 
gentlemen, lodge also our x^rotests, the result is with the 
people. Sometimes the people are slow, but they are not 
permanently wrong. I thank you for your attention. 



'6h 



LETTERS READ AT THE MEETING. 



LETTER OF REV. RICHARD S. STORRS OF BROOKLYN. 

Decembek 22d, 1896. 
My Dear Sir : — 

I regret extremely that it is not in my power to accept 
the invitation to the meeting proposed to be held in New 
York to-morrow evening, for furthering the election of 
Mr. Choate to the United States Senate. Imperative 
engagements at home detain me ; and I can only hope 
that if a similar meeting shall be held in Brooklyn in the 
coming days I may be able to take j)art in it. 

The matter is not one which concerns Mr. Choate alone 
or chiefly, or his personal friends, but the State and the 
Nation. The office of Senator at Washington, — repre- 
senting a great State in the council of the States, — is 
surely one which demands the highest qualities of mind 
and si^irit. An unblemished reputation is of course the 
first essential condition of fitness for it, with entire free- 
dom from suspicion of any crafty and mercenary manipu- 
lation of local politics for personal ends. But beyond 
these are needed the highest order of intellectual ability, 
a matured and commanding civil wisdom, the power of 
influencing others by convincing and eloquent speech, a 
fearless and an uplifting temper which abides on high 
levels, the noble patriotism which consults the welfare of 
the whole country, with a sense of relationship to the 
great history in which the Senate has borne aforetime so 
distinguished a part. 

It is not often that a man can be found qualified for so 
exalted an office, and at the same time willing to accept, 
at whatever private sacrifice, its manifold labors and vast 
responsibilities. The opportunity presented when such a 
man appears is one which tests democratic institutions. 
To fail to improve it, and, instead of improving it, to 
place the honor and power of the State in hands inade- 



36 

quate or unfit for the majestic trust, would be at any time 
more than a calamity, more than a blunder, it would 
involve disgrace for all concerned in the evil work. 

Especially must this be the consequence at a time so 
critical as the present, when gravest questions are before 
the nation for illuminating discussion and final decision ; 
questions affecting our permanent public and private 
interests, as well as our important and far-reaching foreign 
relations. At a time like this, to have the State of New 
York consent to be represented in the Senate by a dexter- 
ous and ambitious manager of the caucus, when the oppor- 
tunity is at hand for placing a really great man, honest 
and incorruptible, in the seat of Seward or Silas Wright, 
it would almost make one despair of the RexDublic. Cer- 
tainly the honor and the moral coherence of the Repub- 
lican party would suffer heavily through any such action. 

With all my heart, therefore, I am with you in the effort 
to have the State rise to* the level of the great occasion, 
and send Mr. Choate to counsel and speak for it in the 
Senate. 

Faithfully yours, 

RicHAED S. Storks. 
Mr. Edmukd Wetmore, 

President^ etc. 



LETTER or HON. SETH LOW, President of Columbia University, 

December 23d, 1896. 
Paul D. Cravath, Esq., 

Chairman. 
My Dear Sir: — 

Three years ago, the Republican Party in this State 
made Mr, Choate a member of the Constitutional Conven- 
tion and elected him President of the Convention. In this 
capacity Mr. Choate splendidly vindicated, by his fidelity 
to the duties of the position, by his dignity, by his tact, by 
his good judgment, and by his great ability in debate, the 



37 . 

sagacity of the Party iu selecting him for this high and in- 
fluential position. There is little doubt -that the people of 
the State contirmed the choice of the Party in this case with 
satisfaction and enthusiasm. The State having thus re- 
ceived good service from Mr. Choate in this conspicuous 
position, I believe that it would be good judgment to avail 
of his great abilities again by electing him to the Senate of 
the United States. Some men have the gift of measuring 
up to their opportunities, whatever they may be. Such 
an one I think Mr. Choate will show himself to be in the 
Senate Chamber of the United States, should he be elected 
to that high office. Therefore, I cordially endorse and 
support his candidacy and join with pleasure in the move- 
ment to urge him upon the Legislature for the Senatorship 
about to become vacant. 

Respectfully, 

Seth Low. 



letter of william allen butler, esq. 

54 Wall Street, New York, 
Dec. 23d, 1896. 

Edmund Wetmore, Esq., 

President of the Choate Club. 

My Dear Sir: 

I regret that I am disabled by a cold from taking part 
in the meeting to be held this evening in aid of Mr. 
Choate' s Candidacy for the United States Senate, which I 
think ought to commend itself to our incoming Legislature 
for the following, among other reasons : 

1st. The Senate of the United States, desx)ite the just 
criticism and censure it has jorovoked, is still a most essen- 
tial and important factor in our system of free constitu- 
tional government. Aside from the Legislative powers 
which it shares with the House of Representatives, the 
more important Executive offices can be filled oulj^ with 
its advice and consent, and it exercises, in conjunction 



38 

with the President, the Treaty -making power. The fore- 
most names in American Statesmanship are connected 
with its annals. Out of the twenty-three Presidents of 
the United States, thirteen have presided over, or been 
members of the Senate. Of these the first was John 
Adams and the last Benjamin Harrison. Our own State 
has in former days sent its most distinguished public men 
to the Senate. Silas Wright when he resigned in 1844 to 
become Governor of New York was its most esteemed 
member. Since then, William H. Seward, John A. Dix, 
Edwin D. Morgan, and Roscoe Conkling, not to mention 
others, have been fit representatives of the Empire State 
in the Senate. The highest personal character, a large 
experience in public affairs, a knowledge of Constitutional 
and Parliamentary law, skill in debate and wisdom in 
council, are among the indispensable requisites for a fit 
discharge of the duties of a Senator. 

2nd. It is conceded that Mr. Choate possesses all the 
requisite qualifications. If he is willing to serve the 
State as a Senator in Congress, his eminent fitness ought 
to make his election sure. There is special need now of 
well-trained jurists in the Senate. The active, intelligent 
and able lawyers who will so largely control our next 
State Legislature know perfectly well that Mr. Choate is 
the best and worthiest man New York can at the present 
juncture send to the Senate. They know, too, that for a 
lawyer the indispensable requisite for his standing and re- 
pute is the esteem and respect of the members of his own 
profession. Any lawyer who casts his vote in the coming 
Senatorial election at the dictation of partisan leadership 
or for selfish political ends, instead of the highest public 
interest, deserves to forfeit the good opinion of the Bar of 
New York. 

3rd. The present situation of the country demands new 
safeguards against national joerils. Sound men are just 
as necessary as sound money. We have escaped a great 
disaster by the united efforts of citizens who, in the face 
of threatened dangers, made party subservient to patriot- 



39 

ism. Certainly we should not fall back upon the machin- 
ery of party as the rule of action when the po]3ular will 
has declared, as in this State, in an unexampled way, that 
the safety of the Republic is the highest law for political 
leaders and managers as well as for the people at large. 

4th. There is no worthy candidacy in opposition to that 
of Mr. Choate. The public seems to have adjusted itself 
to the idea that the action of the Legislature in the elec- 
tion of a United States Senator is to be that of a voting 
machine, set in motion by a single hand to register the 
decree of a single will. If the Legislature of New York 
has come at last to such base uses, the fact should be made 
clear and patent and not disguised under subterfuges and 
evasions. If a candidacy which in 1881 was a source of 
political disturbance and disquiet until it shrank out of 
sight into a self-chosen obscurity, is to be rehabilitated in 
1897 as a necessary outcome of a restored party supremacy, 
it is not unreasonable to challenge and scrutinize its claims. 
Candor and common sense, as well as the settled law which 
governs political issues, demand this. Public men must, 
"as to public matters, be judged by this record, and when 
the issue is as to a claim for the highest recognition and 
reward, the burden of proof is on the claimant to show 
superior fitness and good ground for the preferment which 
he seeks. The Legislature of 1897 is to be the arbiter of this 
issue, and all right-minded men, as it seems to me, would 
regard with alarm and indignation, however repressed or 
hindered in their utterance by party ties or afliliations, a 
result which would inevitably lower the standard of the 
public service in its most exalted sj)here. This peril can 
only be averted by the election of Mr. Choate. 

Yours very truly, 

Wm. Allen Butler. 



40 
LETTER OF HON. SHERMAN S. ROGERS OF BUFFALO. 

Buffalo, 22nd Deer., 1896. 

W. D. Guthrie, Esq., 

& Paul D. Cravath, Esq., 
for Committee. 

Gentlemen : 

I greatly regret my inability to attend the Carnegie Hall 
meeting tomorrow evening for I most warmly favor Mr. 
Clioate's candidacy and would gladly say so on that occa- 
sion with whatever emphasis I could command. 

Two things seem so clear at this time that I cannot 

imagine how any good citizen, and especially any good 

Repuhlican citizen, can fail to see them. The first is, 

that the State of ISTew York stands in urgent need of a 

great Senator. The other is, that in Mr. Choate the need 

would be fully supplied. Why, then, should he not be 

nominated ? 

Most sincerely Yours, 

Sherman S. Rogers. 



LETTER OF REV. R. S. MACARTHUR, D.D. 

Calvary Baptist Church. 

57tli St., bet. 6th & 7th Aves. 

Pastor's Residence, 

358 West 57th St. 

New York, Dec. 21, 1896. 
Mr. Paul D. Cravath, 
Dear Sir : 

Yours of the 19th inst. I answered last Saturdays 
evening verbally, as I was so engaged at the moment I 
could not write. I appreciate the honor of the invitation 
given me to address the meeting to be held at Carnegie 
Music Hall in favor of the election of Mr. Choate to the 
United States Senate, but an engagement to lecture that 
evening in another part of the City forbids my acceptance 
of the invitation. 



41 

I hail with joy the possibility of Mr. Choate's election 
to the Senate. His election would confer honor upon the 
City, the State and the Country. The presence in the 
Senate of a man of his wide learning, great eloquence and 
high character would remind the country of the Senate's 
great days when its walls echoed with the patriotic elo- 
quence of Sumner, Webster and men of like character. 

The election of Mr. Choate would give us the oppor- 
tunity of putting a scholar, a patriot and a statesman into 
the Senate of the United States. The Senate much needs 
men of his character and worth. Every instinct of patriot- 
ism should lead all true Americans now to favor the elec- 
tion of a genuine statesman. The mere politician ought 
not to be in demand when a senator from the great State 
of New York is to be elected. Our State is much in need 
of senatorial representation worthy of the i3opulation, 
wealth and character of the Empire State. 

Very truly yours, 

R. S. MacArthur. 



LETTER OF HON. MATTHEW HALE OF ALBANY. 

Law Offices of Hai,e, Bulkeley & Tennant, 
25 NoHTii Pearl Street, 
Albany, N. Y. 

December 21, 1896. 
Paul D. Cravath, Esq., 

107 East 37th Street, New York. 

Dear Sir : 

I regret that I could not accept your invitation to attend 
the Choate mass meeting Wednesday night. As a ^^itizen 
of the State of New York, interested in her prosperity and 
greatness and wishing that she might be worthily repre- 
sented in the Senate of the United States, it would have 
aiforded me much satisfaction to aid in the expression of 
a public sentiment in favor of the election as Senator of 



42 

a man of tlie high attainments, the great ability and the 
conceded integrity of Mr. Choate. No one who knows 
him can question his rare qualifications for the position. 
The mention of his name takes us back to the traditions 
of the times when such men as Webster, Rufus Choate, 
Clay, Calhoun, Silas Wright, Marcy, Dix and Seward 
were members of that body. ^' * ^ 

Wishing you the greatest success in your meeting Wed- 
nesday evening and in the hope that the Legislature may 
see that the honor and credit of the State can be best pro- 
moted by the election of Mr. Choate to the Senate, I 
remain 

Very truly yours, 

Matthew Hale. 



RESOLUTIONS UNANIMOUSLY ADOPTED BY THE MEETING 

Hesolved, That the Republican voters of the City of 
New York at this meeting assembled, recognize the para- 
mount importance of electing as United States Senator 
from the State of New York, the Hon. Joseph H. Choate, 
wdio as leader of the American Bar, and our foremost con- 
stitutional lawyer, is peculiarly qualified to represent the 
State of New York during the critical period through 
which the Nation is now passing ; 

Res olTied further ^ That we jjledge our earnest efforts to 
the support of Mr. Choate's candidacy, and request our 
representatives in the Legislature to vote for him ; 

Resolved far tJier , That a copy of these resolutions be 
sent to each member of the Legislature. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




